Trip Tiks and GPS 

When you were a kid, did you take driving vacations?  I did.  We would pick a new place or sometimes go to a tried and true one, but part of the preparation for the trip always included going by the local AAA office and picking up a Trip Tik Travel Planner.  I seem to remember that part of the service was someone taking the time to mark up the booklet with current facts about our families chosen route.  This booklet then became our complete guide.  Before we left home we'd lay it out and it'd give us a clear picture of the whole trip, enable us to plan stops along the way, decide what attractions we wanted to see along the way, know where construction was happening and most important to my dad, know where the speed traps were!

We didn't' realize it but we had a "systems view".  We had a map of everything we needed to successfully arrive at our intended spots.  On occasions when we made a wrong turn, we'd pull out the Trip Tik and get back on track.  We loved to check the map each day and find the arrow that said "You are here". We found it fun to know exactly where we were with respect to the overall trip.  We liked to know the mileage we had covered and the distance to our next destination.

Today, AAA has downloadable GPS map overlays, mobile apps and destination guides for download.  They've kept up with the changing times.  They know how important it is to drivers to have a "system".

Ah....so yes, we have GPS.  Yep and sometimes I love it and sometimes I find the more I use it the less I know about where I'm going.  The more I rely on the GPS the less I have a big picture of where I'm going.   Of course there's instant zoom and panning, but I don't implement a "system" like I did when I had a Trip Tik.  And heaven forbid should you be somewhere remote and lose connection to the satellites and simultaneously make a wrong turn.  Getting back on track is a real pain.

So Trip Tiks and GPS are a lot like our businesses and even our personal lives. What if we're handling them like driving without a Trip Tik or a GPS - no real systems view.  No way to "see" the connections or lack of them and no "You are here" arrows?  Hard to get to the desired destinations?  You bet!

From childhood we learn to break down complex problems to make them more manageable.  It's the practical thing to do.  The problem is once issues are broken down for understanding, it's almost impossible to put them back together without an overall view.  Not just a view, albeit broken into smaller chunks, but a systemized view of how to put the things we've broken down back together.  The deal is no one can think big until they've been taught to think systematically.  As individuals and as business owners and as employees we need to think big.  And so, it only makes sense that we need to have systems.  We need to have processes.  And we need to know that the systems and processes are there as guides only.  They are best when referred to often to see the "You are here" arrows and to relish in arriving at the intended destination and being able to say it was a good trip where you didn't get caught in an irritating speed trap putting everyone in a bad mood!